Splash
by radiance x
Summary: They're all caught in the middle of the triangle in some way. Holly J./Anya/Mia. Oneshot.


**notes: **For ficathon08 at dtngfemslash on LJ. Takes place somewhere around the time of "Jessie's Girl." A little AU, but barely. The dynamics are still the same.

--

There is something different about Mia. For a girl who's been handed more than her fair share of reality in comparison to most of her peers, she's. . . sweet. Anya can't really describe it but when Mia's sitting real close to her and Anya can see the softness in her eyes and the sun in her smile, she knows there's something different about Mia.

"I really love your earrings," Anya says, reaching to touch. Her fingers don't touch the small, metallic hoop so much as graze Mia's ear.

They play this game every so often.

"Thanks," she says with a blinding smile and leans in to rest her own fingers against the heart-shaped pendant on Anya's necklace that nearly dips down into her green camisole. "Is that a new necklace?"

"Mhm," she replies and tries to swallow, but her mouth is dry.

This as far as they get some days because Holly J., who's harnessed the incredible ability to materialize out of nowhere, barks a demand at Anya, and she quickly gathers her things and follows suit.

Sometimes, when they're doing their post-lunch lipgloss touch-ups in the washroom, Anya can't tell her own reflection from Holly J.'s. Sometimes, when she's thinking these ridiculous thoughts, her mind goes to Mia.

0o0

Mia can only mildly tolerate high school. Sure, some of the boys are cute and the teachers are okay, but the drama is unbearable. She had to learn the hard way that, once you do something as life-altering as having a kid at fourteen, it's damn near impossible to go back to how it used to be. She can't get excited about school dances or field trips or first dates when she has a three-year-old at home.

Mia is sixteen, but she feels like she grew up a lifetime ago.

She's never met anyone quite like Holly J. or experienced the power that she has over other people.

"Move, skeeze," she'll shout to an innocent freshman in the hallway and before you can turn your head to see who she's talking to, they're long gone. The evil wrath of Holly J. seems to be a destructible force.

And yet, Anya is still standing.

Mia feels sorry for Anya (though not as sorry as she feels for Holly J.) but sometimes, Mia just wants to take Anya away and protect her.

Sometimes.

0o0

"Want to do something tonight? My mom offered to watch Isabella."

"I can't."

"Because of Holly J.?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Why do you let her control you so much?"

"I don't."

Denial comes so easily for Anya. Mia's never been good at hiding.

0o0

Holly J. doesn't prefer to think of herself as evil so much as manipulative. And it isn't even her manipulation that gets her what she wants; it's other people's willingness to be manipulated. People will believe anything if you word it the right way. People will let you walk all over them if you're intimidating enough. And she would know, right? Being the sister of the infamous Heather Sinclair does involve _some _perks. It's not her fault that people practically _ask _to be taken advantage of. Life, especially high school, is war. If they can't handle it, it's no one's problem but their own.

There is one person, however, that she could never seem to get.

Holly J. doesn't exactly know how Anya has the time on her hands to be making new friends, seeing as all Anya does is spend her time with her, but suddenly all Anya talks about is how awesome Mia is and how cute Mia's daughter is and how, "Holly J., you just need to give her a chance; she might surprise you."

Okay, so she might have only said this once as casual conversation, but that is enough. She doesn't need her best friend attached at the hip to Mama Mia (didn't she have a kid to take care of or something, instead of spending all her time trying to tear Anya away from her?). She is a bad influence, and poorly dressed.

But most of all, she does not see Holly J. as a threat.

0o0

"Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?" From anyone's mouth but Mia's, this would sound self-deprecating and so pathetic Holly J. could puke. But Mia just sounds annoyed and bored.

"Are we really going to go down this road again?" Holly J. asks, matching her bored tone, and challenging her to argue.

Unlike most of the school's population, Mia doesn't back down.

"Just leave Anya alone, okay? She doesn't deserve the crap you put her through."

Holly J. laughs indignantly. "You mean the crap that _you _put us through. I know your life sucks and all, but you don't have to ruin what I have with Anya. We've got a good thing going."

Mia steps a little closer and she says, "Sorry, let me rephrase. Anya doesn't deserve you."

"Can't you just accept your place as number two? In a war between you and me, sweetie? We both know who Anya will be loyal to first."

Mia can't think of anything to say.

0o0

"I don't understand you," Mia says - not meanly, but simply, as if she were stating a fact. Her calmness sort of unnerves Anya. There is a weird static in the air, both of them tired of the same old conversations, the starting and stopping of whatever it is between them.

Anya laughs, just a little. "I don't understand you, either."

The lunch bell rings. Neither girl moves. They sit on the bench in the hallway, backs against the walls but leaning towards each other.

"I like that shirt," Mia says slowly, deliberately. She doesn't even notice the top that Anya's wearing.

Anya turns her head to look at Mia and reaches over to brush her fingers against the brunette curls that frame Mia's face. "I like your hair," she says just as slowly, and her cheeks turn pink. She almost turns away, but Mia grabs her hand before it pulls away and laces it with her own. She leans in closer, closer, closer, with each movement Anya more enticed, exhilarated, panicked.

She remembers something like this once (only not at all like this), maybe twice, before. It's been shoved back so far in her brain that maybe it didn't even happen - Holly J. pressed up against her on some dateless summer night because it was late and because Holly J. knew all of her secrets. And Anya didn't mind so much when it wasn't real (because it never was) but now her lips are against Mia's and all she can think is how good Mia smells and how she might burst from the impact.

0o0

Holly J. doesn't have a reputation or friends. She doesn't have anyone to sit with at lunch or hang out with on weekends. She has a sister who would rather spend her time making Holly J. feel insubstantial and worthless (to the point where a botched nose-job didn't feel like enough karmic payback) and she has Anya.

Holly J. only puts Anya in her place because it's the only way to make sure she'll stay there; make sure she won't leave.

Holly J. sees Mia kiss Anya in the nearly empty hallway and sees her change right before her very eyes.

Holly J. remembers kissing Anya, remembers years of friendship, years of it being just the two of them. She can feel the sparks between them that she never had with Anya. With anyone.

0o0

Mia notices Holly J. out of the corner of her eye, right before she pulls away. Anya is beautiful and sweet and Mia could probably kiss her for the rest of her life, but all she thinks in that moment is that Anya picked her, finally, finally, finally. She feels oddly triumphant, like she's won something and maybe she has. Good: 1, Evil: 0.

She's surprised to see that Anya looks like herself - despite wearing an exact replica of Holly J.'s outfit - all human and raw and open and reacting the way she felt and not the way she was told to feel.

0o0

When Anya sees Holly J., they lock eyes. Neither say a word because they're too far away and don't think they'd be able to break their stunned stupor even if they weren't. This is her moment of truth. Mia and Holly J. look at her - she's exposed and maybe she can't live with the weight of denial on her shoulders anymore.

She has to make the next move. So she takes Mia's hand and declares liberation from Holly J. - both of them treading open water, alone for the first time.

-end-


End file.
